Trying time...

It's been a long time since my last post. A lot happened but nothing I wanted to talk about.

The never ending saga of our visas... An email with bad news, a rushed return to England... a funeral... that's life.

The day day before we came back from the UK, the friend who was looking after the dog in my flat contacted me to tell me that the electricity had been cut in the flat. That was nearly the last straw.
"What the hell are we doing (in Brazil)" was my 1st thought. I was so stressed with everything by then.
Anyhow, we came back on a Saturday morning and we went through the bills. They were on direct debit with the owner until about 3  weeks before, when we switched the bills to our names. I then paid the November bill at  the bank but we assumed (wrongly) that the bill for October had been debited.

Anyhow, it was not and hence the electricity was cut off! We spent the weekend using candles and most of the food in the fridge was binned or eaten. Too hot to keep.
The following monday morning by 9am I was at the nearest office of "Light", the electricity company. I asked to pay October's bill if it was due and why on earth it was not added to our November bill?
Well they don't add the bill to the next month. Typical of Brazil, I could not pay the bill at their office because some machine was broken (that happens a lot around here!) so I had to queue in the sun for a bank to open at 10am, pay the bill, then go back to Light to get the electricity reinstated.

Now, few comments if you plan to rent a flat in Brazil: best to keep utility bills at the owner's name. As my neighbour told me, it is so complicated to get them back to the owner name when tenants leave that it is probably best not to change anything. Utility companies have bad reputation about stuff like that! Crazy bureaucracy again maybe???

You may be surprised that I go to the bank to pay my bills? Well, we cannot put the utilities in direct debit, as, without a permanent visa (of at least 1 year) you CANNOT open a bank account in Brazil.
If HSBC bullshit you on their wonderful Premier Account "Ideal for expats", it is a lot of lies and BS! No visa of  over 1 year, no bank account... unless of course Jeitinho... do you know someone high up in HSBC Brazil that can arrange this for you? One of my friend does, and despite the fact she has no visa, is not leaving here, does not meet any of the requirements to get a Premier Account... she still has one! Jealous me?!

The thing is, everything is very difficult  to get done in Brazil but nothing is impossible.. If you know the right personne in the right place. Jeitinho. You will hear often this word in Brazil. It's all about who you know.

Anyhow, we finally got some godo news yesterday. Our visas (after about 3 months of incompetence by someone not to be named here) have finally been approved! We can go back  to the UK in January to pick them up! at least some progress. We  can then get our container shipped to Rio. That, again, I fear will be quite a  saga... for what I've heard from other expats it is a real racket business run by custom. And stuff often get stolen as well.
We'll see. I keep saying, we live in hope! :)

Happy Xmas anyone!

What happened to our visas??????????????

Well that’s what we keep wondering!

We were supposed to go back to the UK on the 26^th of October to pick up our visas but… someone along the line f**cked up seriously and for what we understand the visas application had to be cancelled and redone.  With friends like these….  Well colleagues really, people who should be able to do  their jobs but seem incapable of such a thing, once again!

So we delayed, and re-delayed our flights booking. We were supposed to leave on the 15^th of Nov. but then again we had to cancel that. We did a provisional booking for 1^st of Dec. although there is no guarantee that the visas will be ready by then. But in another hand, flights between Rio and Europe are so full that you have to book well in advance!

It will be a year by the time we get our container! I don’t expect it to arrive before March /April.. so yes a year for Alistair as he arrived here on the 5^th of April.

Talking of container, our friend Adriano who is Brazilian and, after 10 years in the US relocated to Rio, finally got his released by Custom, after a looong time!

Now here is the funny thing about importing appliances from overseas.

If you import from Europe the 1^st hurdle will be that in Europe it’s 220V/ 50Htz while in Brazil it is 110V/60Htz.

Don’t gloat if you are North American. You may get the voltage right but there is still another issue that just happened to Adriano.

Well you see, unless you have a big fat expat deal that pay zillions for your accommodation, the chances are, (even like that!) that you end up in a small flat. Kitchens here are tiny. Adriano finally got his appliances but could not get them in his kitchen. He had to demolish a wall to get them in….

Of course the alternative is to buy Brazilian electronics…hmm…

Then you have to find furniture, and hey! Flat packed furniture is cheaper…  Well I can confidently assure you: It ain’t Ikea!!!!!

We bought a flat packed Wardrobe from Ponto Frio. It came with 66 bits of woods of various sizes and HUNDREDS of nails, screws, bits and pieces including glue…. It took a full Sunday and a bank holiday afternoon for Alistair to do it! And we were still left with unidentified bits of wood! ????

The pleasure of that is, you must love jigsaws! You see, the pieces of woods had numbers in the instructions, but none was printed in the individual pieces. Nice game of guessing what is what.  J

best teacher in Rio for Portuguese!

Vivi is GREAT! I studied with her 4 weeks intensive course where the 2 last weeks were on a one to one basis. I learnt a lot and had great fun. Also the stories she tells you about daily life in Rio will immerse you into the Brazilian culture and way of life! Gripping anectdotes too! Ask her about the BOPE invading the favela near to her house! Jaw dropping!

http://portuguesewithvivi.wordpress.com/

Here we go again!.... and don't miss these 3 movies!

Here w ego again! We have more news on the Visas front! Apparently (!) the visas should be ready to be picked up in the Brazilian Embassy in London sometimes early November! As I continue saying: “we live in hope!”.  We’ve only been waiting since err…. 4^th of April. Ok I exaggerate!

It took 4 months to get the company registered. Then it took 6 weeks for the directorship to be registered with the authorities… so in theory the visa application should have gone out end of August and 4 weeks later they should have been ready! Of course someone sat 4 to 6 weeks on their fat arse doing nothing before waking up and starting the application for the visas.

I’m saying nothing else than… HR  are as useless and incompetent in Brazil as they are in France or the UK.

Anyhow, on a lighter note the dog is now better and the vet has stopped the treatment. We still cannot vaccinate it until the steroids are washed out of its system. We had a bit of an issue there, as, without vaccination, we cannot put him in a dog Hotel but we MUST get back to the UK for the visas! Luckily we found someone to stay at the flat while we are away!

My language school has a week night where they show Brazilian movies. I have seen 3 so far and they were all absolutely brilliant!

Here is the list and I totally recommend you try see them to get an idea of modern Brazil!

Veronica: http://www.filmescompletos.info/baixar-filme-veronica-nacional-dvdrip

Gripping story! Set in Rio!

Tropas de Elite 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsZP9ZX3fsI

I have not seen  Tropas de Elite 1 which tells the story of how the tropas de Elite (BOPE) was created and the war in the favelas to clean them up from the traffic of drug in Rio.

The second one is more political as it shows the corruption at the highest level of government. Most of the characters there are based on real politicians I was told! It is VERY GOOD but warning, it is very violent! I loved it!

Senna:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N70aoG5Lh40

This is the story of Ayrton Senna and his rivalry with Alain Prost. Somehow the French don’t come out looking very good! ;)

Again very good movie, if you can find them where ever you are you will not be disappointed and it will show you the real Brazil!

That’s all for now! J

An amazing man...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1378237514624

Only in Brazil!

Strange day yesterday!

We went food shopping and took the dog out for a walk at the same time. AS dogs are not allowed inside any shops, I was holding it outside HortiFruti (super market) while Alistair went to buy some stuff.

A young man, blond with blue eyes, in his 30s max, passed by and started talking to me and asking questions about the dog. Fairly normal, anyone stops to talk to me about the dog! 

When I answered he heard my accent and switched to English. I asked him if he was English (based on looks and good spoken English) but he kissed my hand very gentleman-like and said he was Brazilian. I mentioned then that I was French but my husband was English. He looked a bit disappointed  then added… “ Oh you have a husband?!” (I don’t wear any jewellery here and that includes wedding and engagement rings!). He continued saying he found me very beautiful and despite having a husband in the background he was still trying to get my phone of email and insisting we should meet some time…. Jeezzz! I had been warned that Brazilians are flirty, but not that upfront! I was all blushing!

Oh well very flattering in any case!

Then an old woman came to talk to me too and the young lad vanished. By the time she left , I saw 2 women coming toward me in  the street with very heavy make up and towering heels. One was wearing a dress so short it was going over her crotch. I thought they were prostitutes … but as they got closer I saw that the tall one with the “short dress” was not wearing any underwear, only fishnets tights and I was clearly able to see her … testicles….  Jeez… only in Rio!

On the Permanent Visas front we have finally good news. They should be ready to be picked up from  the Brazilian Embassy in London at end of the month.  On less good news a couple of friends recently got their 5 years visas, but the wife did not have a work permit. We’ll see how it goes. I was hoping that with an investor visa I would have no restrictions, but it seems that now the spouse cannot get a work permit!

After 3 weeks of intensive treatment and daily injections, our dog seems to be fine and the vet has suspended all injections and reducing the steroids. This is good news, we think he will make it! As the dog is not vaccinated yet and won’t be until he is clearly cured, we cannot put him in a kennel while we are back in London. This has been a big worry for us but finally one of our friends volunteered to look after him!

Since we know that we are going back to the UK I have been shopping on line for stuff I cannot find in Rio (or would be way too expensive).  Not important but useful stuff including mattress covers (the one the bed had here is awful and plastic-like!).  I am quite exited to go back to the UK even for only few days!

As soon as we get the visas we will contact the shipping company to get our stuff on  the move asap. We will try get our driving licences changed quickly as well when we are back from the UK. Then we can order our bikes.

When we are in the UK we will try to test ride some bikes. I would like to try the ER 6N. Very similar to the Versys I had in London but more sporty. If the ER 66N is as good to ride than my Versys I will get it as soon as I can! I think Alistair is still torn between the ridiculously overpriced F800GS or now considering the ER 6N as well for him! We’ll see. I miss not having a bike!

Are my upstairs neighbours printing false money...????????

There is a lot of noise coming from the flat upstairs.

We already complained once via the agency.

It is not ordinary noise though! They seem to have some machine that keeps going all night and all days at times! Like a printing press type of noise!

As the building is for families to live in,  I don’t think they would be allowed to have some sort of workshop up there in any case. But there are very weird gossips  about them!

First, they don’t seem to work.  I heard from a neighbour that the woman who lives there used to do the tax stuff of the owner of the building. That may explain why they get the flat virtually for free! They may know a lot about the tax affairs of the building’s owner!

Then the guy seems to be shifting VERY heavy furniture across the wooden  floor for hours at time!

When the building got renovated and painted, they refused for ANYONE to enter the flat.  Actually no one is ever left into their flat…. There is something really strange going on!

They definitely have some sort of illegal workshop above our bedroom…

Are they printing false money? Whatever is going on is weird…